3.4 Pattern of Commuter Trips in the Inner City Area
Figure 3-12 shows the results (OD breakdown by zonal population and working population) of estimating the number of commuter trips originating in and departing from the inner city area, based on use of commuter OD tables for the Cape Metropolitan Region.
These results are expressed as a demand distribution and, although differences with actual values may arise in each section, it is still possible to infer the general trend seen from the viewpoint of an overall screen section.
As commuter traffic concentrates in the city center from the suburbs, one is apt to think that the traffic volume is greatest in the vicinity of the city center, however, according to the above results, the greatest volume of traffic occurs not in the screen close to the CBD but in fact in the north-eastern side screen (Woodstock).
A possible explanation for this is that, as was indicated earlier, the inner city area working population does not solely concentrate around CBD alone but also concentrates in the zones on the north-eastern side, suggesting a bipolar distribution of employment opportunities in the inner city area.